While eliminating some of the non-essential features, DragonBall EZ retains many features found in the standard DragonBall. These features include a real time clock (RTC), allowing the processor to keep time as well as an interrupt controller that helps programmers handle asynchronous events, such as when you tap on the screen to select an item or to write a character in Graffiti.

The combination of these tradeoffs along with sharing pins with many signals and functions (called multiplexing), allowed the pin count to be reduced from 144 in the original DragonBall to 100 in the DragonBall EZ. DragonBall EZ is available in two packages: a 100-pin TQFP (Thin Quad Flat Pack) and a 144-pin BGA (Ball Grid Array). Both of these packages have about 50% of the footprint of the original DragonBall, and the BGA is incredibly thin, allowing systems to be built in thinner enclosures. A smaller package allowed the Palm IIIx and Palm V developers to reduce the size of their printed circuit board, and the BGA package helps the Palm V device achieve its thin form factor.

Better system debug capability
DragonBall EZ enhances the facilities built into the device to ease system development. It adds circuitry that allows the UART to be reconfigured to initialize the processor and download program instructions and data into memory. It then can be used to control the processor while running this code. DragonBall EZ also adds built-in emulation functions such as a dedicated memory space for the emulator debug monitor, a dedicated interrupt for emulation, and hardware support for breakpoint instruction insertion. All of these features assist the system designer and programmer, allowing them to control the system and quickly examine the results of their work.

Power consumption
The "system on a chip" inside the DragonBall EZ allows system designers to minimize external components necessary for a system, thereby reducing overall system power. The DragonBall EZ runs at 3.3V and consumes only 20mA in typical operation. The power management circuitry in DragonBall EZ allows each unit in the chip (LCD controller, memory controller, UART, SPI, etc.) to be shut off when not in use, thereby increasing the power savings. The DragonBall EZ is a "fully static" design, which means that when portions of the chip are not being used, their transistors (the elemental building blocks of a microprocessor) are not switching on and off, and thus not burning any power. The combination of power management along with miserly transistors allows DragonBall EZ powered devices to run weeks on standard batteries.